Servicing midrange and mainframe data-processing systems is a major segment of the data-processing industry. A manufacturer or large company may employ as many people for repair and service as for sales or for development of new systems. Servicing requires extensive networks of service representatives, parts inventories, software, and physical facilities. Ironically, the servicing of data-processing systems relies heavily on human labor and mental effort.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,852 to A. M. Bentley et al. proposes one step toward more automated repair of data-processing systems. That patent allows an operator to run problem-determination procedures (PDPs) stored in the system itself. The PDPs can themselves determine which components are present in the system and run tests against them, using the results of previous tests to determine which PDPs to run next. These PDPs can also request the operator to perform actions, such as setting controls, disconnecting cables, and restarting programs. The PDPs propose problem solutions as messages to the operator recommending that certain actions be taken, or that certain service representatives be summoned.
A centralized service data-processing system has also been established; for example, the IBM "RETAIN" network has been available for many years. A customer can telephone the nation-wide facility and relate a problem on his system to a service representative, either a customer engineer (CE) or product support staff. The representative attempts to diagnose the problem by asking the customer what symptoms his system experiences, and what hardware and software components are present on the system. As the customer answers these questions, the service rep enters certain key words into a terminal. When he is satisfied that he has sufficiently characterized the problem, the rep accesses one or more problem-management data bases stored in the central system, using the key words as search arguments. Each entry in the data base has one or more key words and descriptions of proposed solutions for problems involving those key words.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,505, to Calvert et al, owned by the assignee of the present application, discloses a computer system that is able to detect a problem and send a service request to a central service system. The central service system receives the service request and checks a database to see if a solution to the problem is known. If so, solution information is automatically sent to the computer system.
The above patent to Calvert et al represents a significant advancement in the field of computer system service. However, Calvert et al's computer system requiring service could only send service requests to one central service system. In addition, if the central service system could not find a fix for the problem in its database, it had to notify a support center where a human being would have to look into the problem further. The central service system could therefore only automatically fix a subset of the problems likely to be encountered by the computer systems looking to it for service. This problem is magnified when one considers that most computer systems today contain hardware and software manufactured by several different vendors. In addition, computer systems can be radically different in hardware and software configurations and capabilities. It is unlikely that one central service system will be able to adequately service the diverse problems likely to be encountered by perhaps hundreds or thousands of computer systems depending on it for service. Calvert et al's computer system also lacked the ability to efficiently track the resolution of problems, or to request or receive problem prevention.